The game has been flipped on its head - Big Brother - Week 4 (ep. 12-15)

Welcome back Big Brother! We are back after a two-week hiatus :) There’s much to catch up on, so let’s get into it.

Maybe someone noticed, but I didn’t happen to post last week for Big Brother! Sorry to my countless, die-hard fans who regularly check out my blog. I was away on a little vacation and celebrating my 23rd birthday. However, I was able to catch up and watch the episodes on Paramount Plus.

Here are my takeaways on week 3 (episodes 9,10, & 11), feel free to skip through if you want to get to the other stuff lol:

1. Someone claimed that they evicted Lisa over Angela because she was more of an HOH threat. This is a terrible argument considering that Angela has won an HOH already and just won her second.

2. I am shocked we came out of that balance beam walking HOH competition with no injuries. Cedric was moving and he paired it with great strategy to win.

3. Thank you to the showrunners/editors for clearly laying out who everyone is crushin' on. It was very helpful for me so I didn’t have to go scavenging online for it. Tucker and Rubina are the clear showmance and an obvious fan favorite. Rubina is trying to hold back but it’s only a matter of time until she can’t help herself anymore. Cause it’s getting steamyyyy. Don’t leave them in the same room alone. 

   1. Kimo walking in on them while lying on the bed was so funny. 

4. Cedric had a tough time as HOH this week. It felt like he was just going back and forth on what he wanted to do. Whether playing it safe by putting non-threats on the block or putting Makensy/Quinn on the block to flush the advantages. Even when he did announce his decisions, he just didn’t seem confident.

5. Tucker gets fed up quickly. It just seems like the others aren’t playing up to his standard haha. I get everyone is playing boring and not as risky. Which doesn’t make it as fun. However, my only advice would be to make sure you don’t let the emotional part get in the way of the strategic part. Yet he won the veto competition… so maybe his shots are paying off.

6. Quinn made a comment where he said he wishes everyone would just let go of the conversations regarding advantages. Uh… no. Advantages are meant to be used and speculated by those who don’t have it.

7. That veto nomination ceremony was wild. Cedric going with his gut, advantages being announced/played, Tucker not using the veto on himself and then getting pissed when Cedric didn’t do what he wanted, and Angela’s reaction to receiving the veto. It was golden.

   1. That was only the 6th time in history where someone didn’t save themself with the power of veto?!? I heard that on the episode and was blown away by that.

8. Quinn gets nominated with America’s veto. The discourse on him is pretty negative. Yet, based on how he’s played the game so far, I think he deserved it. Claiming he wouldn’t use the advantage, aligning with everyone, and honestly being overconfident. Some of the things he’s done have just irked me. 

9. Kenney is mind-boggling to me. Especially when they said that he had been trying to get on this show for years. All to then claim that he wanted to go home. I can’t help but feel like it’s a wasted experience! Maybe that’s unfair of me to say because I haven’t ever been in his shoes. It was just interesting to see him one moment ask to be evicted and then the next say that he was going to try to win competitions.

Alright, let’s get into this past week! If the game ended today, I think it’s fair to say that Tucker would win in a landslide. Any competition he’s been a part of hasn’t been much of a competition at all. He has been able to control a lot of who gets evicted by putting himself as a pawn. Lastly, I think he’s done enough socially that people might vote for him in the end. 

I think the houseguests understand now, but he’s the primary target from here on out. More specifically, the Pentagon alliance is attempting to eliminate him. As we know, I don’t think they strategized hard enough and thought it would be much easier. 

Here is how I would strategize against Tucker:

1. I would not nominate him in the HOH nominations. He simply wins too much and too easily. I would wait to put him on the block until the veto nomination ceremony. It’s fewer opportunities for him to win and as close as possible to getting him out. 

2. This is something that we saw happen this week… but I would threaten him with the people closest to him. AKA, putting Rubina on the block. Try to eliminate his alliance members so that he has no numbers himself. 

3. Drastic times call for drastic measures. If you have the chance, intentionally sabotage him in the competition. I am genuinely worried that he can coast his way through the whole competition just by the competitions.

The HOH competition (catching the photo errors) felt very average in my opinion. It was funny to see former Big Brother contestants in the photos and I liked the fact that you decided who was the next duo to compete. Yet, as a viewer, I was not wowed or heavily invested in this contest. Quinn’s tactic of just guessing right as the prompt was shown… was a terrible idea. It was a complete shot in the dark and it was the easiest way to throw away his HOH odds. 

I wish they also let the viewers kind of play along in this competition too. They could have shown the pictures to us for longer. Brooklyn vs Angela was a storyline that I didn’t realize we needed. It’s such good drama, especially considering it was so unnecessary and it led to passive-aggressive “girl talk” later in the evening. Another thing, shoutout to my fellow Penn Stater! Cam was balling out and used great intuition to get further in the challenge.

Angela’s reaction was gold as well. Here was her reaction in word form: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.

This idea that Quinn was never planning to use the power up…. Is bogus. After Angela won HOH, it was a no-doubter that it should have been used. So he places Tucker, Makensy, and Cedric on the block. Which panned out to be the worst decisions possible. I get nominating Tucker. However, the other two weren’t as strategic as it was made out to be. Cedric put himself in a terrible position as a pawn against arguably two of the best competitors in the challenges. Makensy had no issues with Quinn and was now powerless without a large alliance. She wasn’t a threat. It’s been all over Twitter/X but it might have been the worst use of the advantage possible. 

Personally, I did not enjoy how the advantage was portrayed in the game too. I wish it was more secretive and wasn’t announced that the advantage was used by everyone. However, I do enjoy that Angela is safe this week no matter what by winning the actual HOH. Do you know why? It leads to even more incredible television drama. 

While Brooklyn has shown a strategic game plan so far throughout the game, her best move was arguably suggesting Rubina be put on the block. It might not have panned out, but the idea was there.

As for Joseph, even though he hasn’t done much of anything, he knows a lot of information. Which is exactly why I want him to get the AI instigator advantage in the next couple of episodes. He would make up great lies with the information and alliances he currently holds. It would also just be really fun to see him get involved in the game more.

This Veto competition was taken straight out of the squid games show… minus the part where you fell to your demise. Seriously, this competition was awesome. It involved endurance, strategy, memory, etc. It looked genuinely difficult. The tournament style to it was really enjoyable as well. It looks like the patterns were the same on both sides… so if you need to catch up you just look at the other person while they are ahead. Tucker seemed to use a number strategy (1 left, 3 right, etc.). Makensy/Cedric used a standoff strategy of waiting for the other person to make a move. Also, the fact that it came down to Cedric vs Tucker made for pure cinema. 

What would your strategy be in this competition?

I know I have said this already, but Tucker is so ballsy/bold. Especially when he considered not using the veto on himself again. He made the right decision not to do that. Which, in the end, he said he was always going to use it on himself. I guess it’s a good way to stir the pot and cause some chaos. 

Well, the true stars of the episode were T’kor and Kimo. They were the deciding vote and they delivered in a huge way. It all came when they were suspicious of who Quinn was loyal to. Them or the Pentagon? By Quinn showing his true colors, I think it was the kickstart for Kimo and T’kor to flip the vote. 

The closer we got to the eviction, the more and more people came to the idea that it would be okay to evict Cedric. Which I completely agree with. It flips the alliance numbers on its head and evens a lot of the playing field. I wish it didn’t have to be Cedric, but it was their own fault for putting him as a pawn anyway. 

This week's live competition was absolutely exhilarating. The nerves were present, the competition was fun to watch and it came down to the wire. It was a buzzer beater for Makensy. You seriously can’t ask for a better live competition. I was wondering if the challenge would take a while, but once they got the balls to sit on top of the ramp…it moved much quicker. 

Julie must have been so happy to see them strategizing this week. She didn’t have to scold any of them this time around.

I did not understand Brooklyn’s thought process at all during this live eviction. How did she feel it was a good idea to let Rubina know that she would probably go home? How can you be certain about that?! It’s a terrible look for her when it’s all said and done. 

You can tell people love having Cedric around too due to the emotions shown during the votes. I was sad to see him go too. He’s a great dude with great energy but happened to be placed in a bad situation. The post-eviction interview was sad to watch as you can tell he wasn’t ready to go. Best of luck to him in the future!

Looking forward to how this week plays out!